Power Struggle
by RuningWitSizorz
Summary: You want more... But you get less. This is a story about a Furret wanting to be more then a HM slave, and how his struggle for power ends him and his bothersome Espeon friend in one situation after another. But... Is gaining power what he really needs?
1. Chapter 1

It happens eventually right?

You stop holding onto the old and outdated, you bring in the new…

. . .

The boy's name was Nate.

His first Pokémon was - of course - the starter the professor gave him, but Nate's true first Pokémon that he **caught **with no help was a Sentret. He was notably stronger, mentally and physically, than the others around him in the wild in his age group. He did not bully those weaker than him, but tried to prove himself instead, taking watch for others while they searched for food. The day he beat two wild Pidgeys bent on eating him down into the ground with his tail, would always make him smile a little, even the Alpha was impressed of the Sentret's natural ability towards fighting. Many of his fellow normal types ran away like pros, he was different. His eyes were sharp, he noticed things most didn't, and although he wasn't overly talkative or charismatic or even too playful, the other Sentrets of his age group liked him; he had saved one of them or one of their close friends at least once, and was a good listener…

The first year of his life went like this, getting stronger and protecting the others the best he could, the elders slowly adding more and more responsibility on his shoulders to compensate…. And then something happened - as things naturally tend to do - that changed his life.

On watch one day, he caught sight of a trainer with a Totodile fighting young Sentrets, as Nate was new to training and would later learn that you were **not**supposed to fight young pokemon as you could, and would, be fined for doing so, he didn't hold back. While his pokemon was not overly strong, the normal type's outnumbered him three to one, and the trainer had not spent more than a week of time together with his water type,whom he named Hagar, it was still looking like a one sided fight. Seeing that the foe outmatched his fellow pack members, the stronger Sentret came into the fight, the distraction allowing the others to run away to safety.

The Sentret had a certain amount of pride, he would not go back to his pack unless he defeated his foe, but he would not just pick fights that he knew he would lose... Without a good reason. Right away, he knew he would lose this fight, though. Trainers, he had run into a few of them, were not on the Alpha's level, or at least the ones that he had seen on the route he lived on. But whenever he had fought one, it was apparent that the Pokémon that they had with them were stronger than the ones in the wild, and even though they didn't lose the fights with them, it was always because of a numbers game. They outnumbered the human's Pokémon in every fight…. He had figured that together, the four of them would be able to fight the human and his Totodile and win, but his more cowardly and younger pack members had fled instead of staying and fighting…

He would not go down without a fight, this lesson was taught to Hagar and Nate the moment he joined the fight and the others ran away. If the Sentret felt fear, he did not show it. He was unsure if once he was defeated he would be left knocked out for the Pidgeys to have an easy meal, or if he would be captured in one of the red and white sphere balls the human's carried with them…. But this did not deter him, he fought with his tail, front and back claws, and was smart enough to curl up when the water type attacked.

For Nate, the capture was not an easy one. The normal type broke three pokeballs, but in the end the young trainer and his tired water type managed to defeat and add the strong willed Sentret to the team.

He was given at the pokemon center as the two pokemon were treated for their wounds, the Sentret was given the name Cahal, and Cahal learned his new trainer's name, as well as Hagar's. It was odd, Cahal had gone without a name for his whole life up to this point, and his pack went without names for the most part. Due to the life span of a wild Sentret, only those that lived for a fair amount of time earned a name; and that name was Alpha or The Alpha.

Cahal didn't feel angry or saddened by the fact that he was captured, it was exciting really. While he was slightly bitter about his fellow pack members leaving him in this situation, they were young and it was understandable… Besides, the thought of traveling, fighting others for sport, and growing stronger interested him; Nate was rather nice to him, like the Alpha.

While Cahal and Hagar didn't always get together, the latter having a short fuse and the former with a calm attitude that seemed to anger the water type even more, they shared a few brotherly moments and bonded, as did they with Nate.

The first gym in the circuit consisted of flying types, Cahal had fought these natural predators his whole life, and knew certain tricks to catch them off guard, but he and Hagar needed to be stronger before they challenged him… So, they began training at Bellsprout Tower for a week. Among notable things, such as another new member of the team being added; a female Ghastly named Juliet who found pleasure in pranking Hagar and pestering Cahal, something else happened at the Tower. Due to his immunity to ghost type moves and the fact that Bellsprouts were not going to be dropping super-effective hits on him like how they did to Hagar, Cahal was the first choice for battling and after a scuffle over something trivial, it was suddenly apparent that the Sentret was stronger than Hagar. While it didn't make him cocky, it made him happy that he hadn't tried to run away like the others, it was a little under a month and he was already immensely stronger than before… The monks at the tower also interested him, and he picked up on their meditation and adopted his own form of it, noticing how it cleared the mind and relaxed the body…

Eventually they stopped training and challenged the gym, a three on three fight on an above the ground high in the air-raised platform would be fairly difficult… But that's how gyms were supposed to be, a challenge of one's ability to battle, or at least that's what Cahal had gathered… Used to being higher up then most, Juliet was first up, and then Hagar, and then the best was saved for last. Cahal went up to fight the last foe: A Pidgeotto. It was a question whether the gym leader and bird pokemon felt more surprise, or shame as the Sentret defeated them in the tough battle.

Nate was overjoyed that Cahal had pulled through for him, and everyone was happy…. But then, as time went on, and new pokemon were caught, switched out, evolved and trainers and gyms were fought against and won… Cahal was becoming less of a battler, and more so as a boulder mover and rock smasher. True, he, Hagar, and Juliet were never switched out for someone new and evolved into their final forms…. Cahal was given less attention, and the others were trained more and more. He wasn't fully forgotten, and he trained on his own time, but the other five on the team were apparently always a better choice to send out instead of him. He had the potential, he had the will, and he **was** quite strong… But he didn't look like it. A Furret couldn't hold too much power right?

. . .

. . .

. . .

_**Power Struggle.**_

Cahal sighed and laid onto his back, his brown and white fur felt good on the soft green grass and his bright blue eyes full of life and experience, trained to make him accurate and deadly as possibly, lazily watched the clouds above while he thought back to recent events.

The Furret's mind was processing what his trainer had said, word for word, just trying to understand… Why?

"**Cahal, there's a tournament going to happen in Goldenrod, it's going to be a big event and I want to train everyone as much as I can… There's two months 'til it starts and I haven't been training you much, so you're going to be staying at the daycare for around a month, I'll see if you've improved, but if you can't fight well in the entry rounds… Then I'm going to release you back to your natural habitat and use Jade instead…."**

It was hard to swallow, the Furret had figured that his trainer was going to try to replace him eventually, but he hadn't figured it'd be so…. Soon. He thought he'd have until after the eight gym for this day to come… This was his life after all, how could Nate just think of replacing him so easily? It aggravated him, but it could've been a lot worse now that he paid it more thought. The human had done this with quite a few other pokemon before, only he didn't warn them or give them a chance to prove themselves; he just released them or traded them without a second thought. And if he failed to prove himself, the Furret would be back to his old home; there was no doubt in his mind that he was so many times stronger than any of the pokemon in the area and would easily become the Alpha of, if not his old pack, a new pack.

Maybe he'd even settle down and find a mate, it wouldn't have to be one of his species, just some pretty female that was smart….

Cahal's brows furrowed at the thought and he frowned, pushing himself off the ground with his front paws and looking around the area, his ears up and alert. That wasn't a normal thought, and that was the only time in his entire life he had ever thought of something like that, those were quitter thoughts. He wasn't just going to give up, he came this far in his life, and he was going to show his trainer that he didn't need to switch him out for that new Scyther…. The blue eyes found no threats on the expansive amount of land that was the daycare center, just a number of pokemon all at a safe and comfortable distance…. His ears slowly drooped back to their normal position and his muscles untensed, the almost foreign thought had unnaturally set warning lights off on his head and put him edge for no reason… The whole situation he was in put him on edge for no reason…. He let out another sigh and moved back onto his back, looking back up at the big slow moving clouds, he was trying to lie to himself. He knew he was lagging behind on his training, but what could he do really? While the rest of the team, and that Scyther Jade, were getting a good month of **real** training…. He was stuck here by himself with no real way to train.

He could do exercises and practice his rather pathetic, compared to the rest of his teammates', moveset some more… But that's all he ever did, and he had been constantly doing that for the past few months, trying in vain to keep up with his teammates, and so far it hadn't gotten him too far…. A part of him wanted to be a young Sentret, to be like the other Sentret and just curl up and try and shut out the outside world, not to fight back… But he knew he couldn't do that, he had never done that, and he wasn't going to start doing that now.

The Furret had tried to fight some of the other pokemon that other trainers had left at the daycare, but all the ones he had asked didn't want to train…. They all wanted to **relax** and **not** train.

At all.

He asked around fifty different pokemon at least once, twenty of them three times, to fight him. Cahal was even starting to contemplate taking a page from Juliet's book and pester someone until they attacked him… But he knew he couldn't make himself do that, he wasn't a savage nor an idiot and he wouldn't act like he was.

But what could he do then?

"You could talk to me~" The voice was muffled, and it was sudden, but instead of being afraid or surprised, Cahal quickly hopped onto his feet and looked around, tensed up and ready for anything once more. "Where are you?"

There was a muffled giggle, and the ground shook slightly in front of the Furret, making him take a step back as he waited for the owner of the voice to show his or her self…. He didn't have to wait long before a pink pokemon busted through the ground and shot into the air, gently landing on the ground after doing a small flip. The Psychic type was a pink colored four pawed feline-like creature with a small red jewel in the forehead, her long tail split into two near the end, it was an Espeon. It was obviously a female; the scent she gave off and the voice were the obvious giveaways, to someone who was able to get a closer look at her or had sharp eyesight would notice the feminine facial features… Her voice was had a tone that he couldn't properly identify, but she had a tone to her voice for sure. "I'm right here dear sir…. Why ever would you ask?"

Cahal's eyes narrowed as he looked at her, the tone she was using was a playful tone that he didn't like hearing, fake innocence coupled with a real smile bothered him, yes. But her tone of voice wasn't the only reason why his eyes narrowed; it was obvious she was reading his mind, invading his personal privacy, and that ticked him off the most… Almost all Psychic types did it whenever possible, and now that he was checking for it, he could feel her presence inside of his mind. If you knew the presence was there, it was easy to get rid of it just as long as you weren't met with force, so she was easily kicked out of his mind just by him willing it and he was instantly rewarded with a satisfying pouting face that female now wore. His voice wasn't rude, or angry, or even laced with traces of amusement from seeing her dissatisfied with his knowledge of evicting her from his mind… It was blunt and to the point. "I ask because you were in my head, and I was unaware that you were underground."

"Well, now you know, and now..." She gave a wink and her smile returned, her tone of voice keeping that fake innocence from before. "…I'm up here with you Cahal."

Mind reading bothered him, Cahal believed everyone should be allowed to have their own private thoughts and if they wanted someone to know their name, they would tell them themselves. The Espeon sat down; her current leisurely stance put him at ease, slightly. He was still ready for anything, but he put his front paws down as there was no need for them to be up. "Seeing how you already know my name, what's yours?"

She raised her eyebrows, smile deepening at the question. "Oh, what a straight forward man! Already asking for my name, going to ask where I live next?"

"No, now tell me your name."

Her smile faltered for a moment, but she kept it up still. "Fine, Cahal….. My name is Akila… It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Yes, pleasure to meet you too, now go away."

Akila faked a hurt face, getting up and starting to walk closer to, at an extremely slow pace, Cahal. "Aw, but why do you want me to go..?"

He was indifferent to her, even now that she was so close. Under his fur, hidden, were his muscles, and steel-like nerves, at any moment this could turn sour and he would have to fight, he was sure that this wouldn't turn into a fight, considering that they were at the daycare and not in the wild, but he never put faith in maybes… "Because I want to be alone."

"Well _**I**_ don't want to be alone~" She walked closer, and then around Cahal, her forked tail sticking up and hitting him in the face slightly, making him frown and almost growl. The comment was incredibly suggestive and he was unsure why and what she was doing…. But he already didn't like it.

"Tragic story, why don't you bother someone else then? I've seen plenty of Eevees and their evolutions around on the daycare…." Humorously, Eevees were once a rare pokemon, but a high demand for them caused many people to breed them to compensate for the demand of adorable fur balls that were easy to raise and made great pets…. And thus, a surge of Eevees came into the world. The breeding craze ended once it was shown that the population of Eevees was too big… And now Eevees were almost as common place as Rattata.

"No, no, no, no…" Akila had looped around him completely, her tails having dragged on him the entire time. She started to walk away, but then looked back at him with a smile, making a tsking noise and shaking her head slightly. "Those are all foolish, rowdy boys, with tiny minds… Plus you're stronger and better looking than all of them." She winked at him and turned all the way around, sitting back down.

The complements didn't faze him; they might as well have been hollow. He frowned even more as a thought came to him that made him think. **'How long was she in my head?'** She wasn't there long, but he was willing to bet that the foreign thought from earlier was _really_ a foreign thought and she put it there herself as a subliminal message. Yep, just another common Psychic type thinking they can do whatever they want, and manipulate others for personal gain… "Looks don't matter, and I should let you know that you're not smart. I know you were in my head earlier."

She scoffed, and looked away, realizing just now how smart he _really_ was, he pieced together her plan and ruined it just like that…. She dropped her fake innocence tone and glanced back at him. "Oh, so you've figured it out already? Shame, you should've just played along…"

"Yeah, shame, now leave me alone, please, I'm busy." Cahal's mind began to drift, how was he going to get stronger? No one to fight and train with….

Akila smiled, she knew what he was thinking about, she could still pull this off… "Perhaps I could help you..?"

That brought him back to reality; she said something useful and interesting to him. Of course she knew about his predicament… But it could easily still be a trick. "How do you plan on helping me?"

Akila winked, turned around, and began walking away, tails no longer high up in the air. "You'll have to follow me and find out won't you?"

That made him growl, why did everyone choose to make things harder than they had to be? She could just tell him now and things would be so much easier, this could still be a trick… But he could do nothing but follow her, as his other option was to sit around and **think** about doing something else instead of actually doing something…. He knew thinking was important, but he could think of no other plan, so he had to follow her. He went on all fours and followed silently and determinedly.

They were on one side of the daycare originally, and it seemed like they were going to cross all the way to the other side… In the first days of the daycare, it had been a small family owned business, but after the years, it grew in popularity and more land was bought and more employees were hired to compensate for the size. They grew their own food that the pokemon ate and merely watched the borders to make sure no pokemon escaped and ran off, sometimes getting involved to break up fights if they were big enough or dangerous, and to carry off eggs to a more protective area.

A fairly large amount of pokemon were at the daycare, and every one of them that Akila and Cahal passed seemed to make an audible comment about the two of them much to the annoyance of Cahal and apparent pleasure of Akila. They were making good progress until Akila slowed down, Cahal taking this as a sign to walk up beside her, and spoke up, glancing to look at her. "We're almost there?"

"Eh… No sweetie, we have an ugly road block to deal with…"

Ignoring the sweetie part, he followed her line of sight and saw three pokemon in their way, all Eeveelutions; a Jolteon, a Flareon, and an Umbreon. All were obviously male, and wore smug grins that didn't bother Cahal in the slightest. They all looked like a bother, and possibly waste of time, so he kept quiet and stopped moving when Akila stopped. He just hoped this would be over soon and they could be on their way soon.

There was a small pause before the Jolteon spoke up, he looked and sounded like he was in charge of the three. "I see you're back Akila, come to apologize for such a… _Hasty_, rejection?"

The Espeon scoffed, much like she had before, rolling her eyes for extra effect. "No, of course not Bolt. Now get out of _**our**_ way."

Bolt looked over at Cahal, who let out a sigh and went from all fours to his hind legs, partially sitting down with his tail as the electric type looked him up and down with an amused look…. The Furret had a feeling this was going to be stupid. "Oi, this is that guy you were talking about?"

"Yes, so like I said before, I'm already taken." Cahal glanced over at her, but she didn't seem to notice, so he looked back at the Jolteon in a bored manner... Until her voice rang out in his head telepathically. **'Hey, Cahal, just roll with whatever I say, alright? I don't want to fight these guys…'**

The mental speak almost made him frown, but he yawned instead, achieving his mental voice to sound annoyed. **'Sure whatever, let's just hurry up with this so I can deal with my problem.'**

She nodded her head, the other three were apparently oblivious of the mental dialog that had transpired between the two of them moments ago, this time the Umbreon spoke up this time. "Cho, she's already taken man… Do we just, uh... Go?"

Bolt looked over at him and brought up one of his back legs, and kicked him in the stomach, not on a ribcage breaking level, but on a still painful level. He let out a shout and shifted to the side slightly, the Jolteon looking back over at Akila. "No, we don't just go you idiot. She's says that this guy's her mate, well, obviously she needs a stronger mate; me!"

"Right, because you're stronger than **him**." She made a gesture with her head to Cahal and smiled, shaking her head slightly. "Trust me, you **wish** you were as strong as him or just half as strong as him at least."

Cahal glanced back at Akila again; she was lying through her teeth and saying they were mates? That made sense, she just wanted him to come by and solve this problem and play pretend then… She was obviously a people person with all the manipulating she tended to do and how she talked to others, as Bolt was now scowling and gritting his teeth as if his very manhood was just insulted… Which it was. "You take that back you stupid Espeon; I'm fifty times stronger than this chump!"

She frowned and shook her head. "No, you're not. You're a pushover, now do us a favor and push yourself over to the side so we can be on our way." Once more, her mental voice spoke out inside Cahal's mind, and that's when he declared that the last straw was pulled. **'Alright, I'm just psyching him out, we'll be on our way in no ti-'**

'**Hey, shut it and let me deal with this.'**

'**W-What..?'**

'**I'm going to deal with this, watch.'**

Bolt let out a growl before Akila could respond to Cahal, his eyes were like daggers to the two and he looked ready to pounce in an attack… "How dare you! You're nothing but some stupid little bi-"

"Sir."

The Jolteon stopped speaking to look at Cahal, he hadn't uttered a word the entire time and it took him a moment to register who was talking, realizing who it was, the surprise washed off his face and the dagger-like eyes returned. The normal type didn't seem angry at all, he just seemed bored by everything instead… And that pissed the electric type off. "What chump? Can't you see this is between me and this fine lady?"

Cahal kept calm, he didn't feel angry at all. In his mind, he was just questioning how someone can insult someone one moment and then compliment them another… This guy reminded him of Hagar, and not in a good way, and now it was time to get this over with. "Do you mind if I might say something?"

Bolt was a little taken back by that, as was his Flareon and Umbeon friends, he quickly got back in a pounce position and nodded his head, the tone of his voice making him sound unsure if what he was saying was the right answer. "Er…. Yeah, sure I guess."

"Your name is stupid."

He blinked a few times and raised his head, no longer ready to pounce as he was now completely stunned and didn't know what to do. "What?"

Cahal sighed, shaking his head slightly and looking at the electric type directly in the eye as he spoke for the first time. "Your. Name. Is. Stupid. Simply put, it's an idiotic name that I've been laughing at this entire time. Is your trainer a three year old? Or did you think of that all on your own? Bolt, what was your name as an Eevee? Furball?" Bolt blinked a few more times as he slowly realized that he was being insulted, but not knowing how to counter properly he said nothing… So Cahal kept going, trying to get a response. "That's like if that Flareon's name," The Normal type made a hand gesture towards the fire type behind Bolt. "Was something like Blaze."

Akila giggled and the Flareon lowered his head slightly, trying to pretend he wasn't a part of this. It took a second for Cahal to realize that what he just said was a bad example. "Okay, so his name is Blaze… Let me guess, the Umbreon's name is Shadow?" In response, the dark type lowered his head in a similar fashion that Blaze had done, making Akila giggle yet again, and Bolt bite his bottom lip. "Please tell me you all just have the same idiot trainer and that you didn't make these names up yourselves…"

And that was the comment that made Bolt's head mirror his friends and turn Akila's giggles into full blown laughter. Cahal glanced over at her and sighed, pinching in between his brows for added effect, just like usual, he was surrounded by idiots. "Well then, seeing how you guys should go fix your names, can you please get out of the way?"

That made all of them perk up and remember that there were three of **them**, and only two of **them**, and they weren't supposed to let them pass because they, well Bolt, wanted Akila to reconsider him as his mate… And now they were all pissed at the Furret, so there was no way that they wanted him to get by. After a small pause, Bolt was the one who spoke upon their behalf, again. "Oh yeah, if you're so cool and crap, what's your name smart guy?"

"My name is not Nermal or Normel if that's what you want to know. Now shoo or I'll be forced to enforce my will upon you and **make** you move. I'm a very busy Furret and have things to do."

Bolt's eye twitched and sparks flew from his body, his voice rose in volume an drew the attention of several pokemon nearby, who were trying to ignore the discussion before but were now suddenly interested in it, the Electric type was rather pissed off at the Furret, and had forgotten the Espeon that he was trying to woo earlier completely, his friends followed suit in in his body language as fire seemed to edge out of one of their mouths and a dark aurora seemed to flicker off the other, respectively. "Oh yeah tough guy!?"

"Oh, yeah." He looked over at Akila, who was still laughing her head off, and made a shooing movement. "I got this, you can…. Go to the side." She lightly nodded her head and kept laughing, slowly moving over to the side. Now that she was relatively safe from harm, Cahal looked back over at the three foes, although Bolt was the leader, it looked like the Flareon was the strongest out of all of them… Or at least the most level headed, his stance was good, and he was ready to attack Cahal... Properly. Cahal had been watching and studying them the entire time everyone had been talking, Bolt was pretty skittish and the Shadow seemed to the youngest, and honestly a real push over… It was pretty questionable why he was even a part of the group. Suddenly, Bolt let out a war cry/girlish scream, and charged at Cahal with a head on Tackle, he might've been fast, but Cahal was already expecting a reckless attack such as that and his fist was brought forward just in time to connect with the Electric type's face and hit him with enough force to break a rock, the Rock Smash ended up sending the pokemon flying backwards as a 'snap', possibly the sound a nose made to let everyone know that it was broken, sounded through the air as he traveled, and eventually landed on the grass ground with a thud. Cahal was unable to view his handiwork though, as he still had two foes to fight.

The Furret's ears perked up and in his line of sight he was able to see two things, Shadow shooting a large, slow moving, powerful, improperly made, and easily dodgeable Shadow Ball that had no effect on Cahal due to his being Normal type, and a fast moving Flareon cloaked in flames, charging at him. His eyes narrowed and he got in a ready stance, pivoting onto his other foot and watching the Fire type charge, things seemed to slow down for Cahal as he watch his foe get closer, the flames that covered Blaze were hot and impressive, and upon seeing the attack, Cahal allowed himself to smirk as his front paws glowed bright white. Reaching out, the flames were sucked into the whiteness, turning it into a bright red color as his paws grabbed onto the yellowish tuft of fur around the surprised Flareon's neck. Using the momentum from the charge, the Furret pivoted again, keeping a tight hold on the Fire type as he spun. The small planning was done, his eyes had planned the path out, all he needed to do was time it right…

At the perfect moment, he let go and Blaze was sent flying towards the large Shadow Ball, and Shadow himself. The red light that had just been on his paws were now gone, and it seemed to have gone with Blaze, encasing him around hot flames like before, but unlike how his Flame Charge before was him running, now it was him flying _just_ high enough above the ground to hit Shadow. The flames seemed hotter and more impressive than before, and that was the energy behind Me First, the attack was powerful, returning all the energy and force that the foe was using on their attack, plus a small extra boost from the user to boot. Cahal took pleasure in seeing the difficult move pulled off, and watched as Blaze flew through the ghostly Shadow Ball, painfully, and made direct contact with Shadow, making the two of them tumble along for a while, singeing the grass as they went. The two didn't seem to be moving anytime soon, luckily the smaller and lighter Umbreon had ended atop his older and heavier companion.

A bright yellow light shone from the corner of his eye, and Cahal began the movements to get out of the way in time, but the ThunderShock was too fast and it made direct contact with the normal type, making his fur stick out as the electricity flowed from Bolt, to Cahal in a constant stream of pain. He let out a grunt and grit his teeth as the attack continued, while the Furret's foe lacked in the brain department, he seemed to use all that free empty space to hold all the electricity that was shocking Cahal. For a few seconds his eyes had been forced shut and he had been brought back down on all fours, trying to endure the pain. His eyes were slowly forced opened as the attack continued and he managed to see out of the corner of his eye were his foe was. One of his front paws slowly inched off the floor, Cahal shifted his weight as to not fall down from the action, and his paw rose higher in the air, and he swung it down with as much force as he could, grabbed the dirt and mud underneath the soft grass, and after a pause where he felt the pain that the Electric type's attack brought noticeably increase, he chucked the mud at Bolt in a slap motion, making the mud spread out for full effect.

As the ground type attack completely stopped the ThunderShock, Cahal's limbs almost gave out on him. The attack was quite powerful, and long… Was he being shocked for a minute? He couldn't tell, he just knew it was a long attack, and a painful one at that. It took his breathing a few seconds to go back to a normal level, and the pain took a backseat as he somehow straightened his limbs to their previous non-shaky status. He glanced up at his foe determinedly; thankfully it apparently had rained recently and there were small bits of mud around… Like usual, under any circumstance it seemed his aim was sure and true, the Mud-Slap attack had not only nullified the lighting for him, but it also managed to get mud in Bolt's eyes. Cahal nodded his head and took in a deep breath, before charging at his vulnerable foe, stumbling slightly for the first few steps as he went. Now that he got a good look at him, he could see that his Rock Smash from earlier **had**broken the Jolteon's nose as it was bent slightly and bleeding quite a bit… Knowing he had no time to waste, once close enough, he grabbed the Electric type's head with his front paws and with incredible Strength, the kind that could move boulders the size of Charizard's, he moved onto his hind legs and tossed Bolt in the air. Having mud still in his eyes, he couldn't see anything, but he knew he was in the air, and whatever that was about to happen, would be painful.

He was right.

Bolt fell straight onto Cahal's extended fist, the wind being knocked out of him as he was soon tossed aside by the Normal type, rolling on the ground as his eyes began to close... The way he rolled was painful, one of his front paws were bent in an awkward angle from the movement... While it didn't break like his nose, it hurt and was incredibly sore, even though he felt all this pain, Bolt didn't scream out…. Not because he was a man, but because the pain made him pass out.

. . .

There were a few tense seconds as Cahal's front paws went to his sides and he let out a heavy exhale, he was in pain, but it could've been much worse… And he had felt more pain then this…. So he'd just be a trooper and deal with it. He allowed himself to close his eyes for a moment and mutter 'ow' under his breath before glancing back over at the three of them, while they hadn't landed in the same pile together, they were close enough so he could keep an eye on them…. They didn't move for the most part, the only exception was the movement caused from their breathing. "Wow… And, you want to get stronger?!"

One of his ears twitched and he looked over at the source of the voice, Akila. He opened his mouth slightly to answer her, and looked around some more, seeing a few other pokemon wearing equally impressed looks on their faces, a young Charmander was clapping slightly for the show that the fought brought him, it was a quick fight, but nice to watch never the less. Cahal blinked and looked over at the Espeon, closing his mouth and just nodding his head instead. What he did was no impressive feat; anyone could've done that… Especially anyone else from his team, he needed to be on their level, they were strong… He needed to be stronger.

She stared at him for a few moments, glancing over at the fallen foes before smiling and nodding her head, standing up and continuing to walk in the direction that they were moving in before the fight. "We should hurry up then, we don't want any human's to come by and scold you for _rough housing_ do we now?"

He nodded his head and began to follow, the humans wouldn't be too pleased about the damage brought to the three of them, especially Bolt…. At least Akila was true to her word and was bringing him to… Wherever it was she was bringing him too.

At least he'd find out soon enough…

. . .

. . .

. . .

**Eh, I felt that I did this chapter justice… What do you think? It's a fairly new series and I already have the next chapter ready to go-but should I put it up? The answer is a 'hell yeah I should'! :D**

**I'll try and get things updated every week or so. ^_^**

**Tell me what yah think with a review or sumethen of the sort, thanks for reading this first chapter! (Or for skipping to the bottom of a 6,000ish word chapter, which must've been quite the scroll and does desreve a reward of some sort if you're on a phone. :P)**

**Till next time, see yah!**


	2. Chapter 2

Akila and Cahal walked silently, the former glancing back at her follower with a small smile everyone few moments as he kept licking his paw and rubbing down all the fur that had been sticking up from the powerful ThunderShock from earlier. They had slowed down after putting a good distance between them and Bolt's group, and Cahal was walking on his hind legs to make flattening his fur down and making it more presentable easier… He may have been a warrior, but he was no slob by any means. His keen eyes caught her glancing at him and their eyes locked for a moment, making her smile grow. The Furret raised a brow at this, going back to cleaning his fur when she suddenly stopped moving and he did the same. Looking back up, he saw that they were near a rather large pond that had a few trees and rocks around it. This must've been where all the water types were taken to, or were at. It made sense that a Magikarp couldn't be at the grassy field-like areas that the daycare seemed mainly comprised of…

His traveling companion sat down and he did the same. They looked at one another, not saying anything, Cahal's fur was down for the most part so he just sat there, Akila's tail twitched in the silence before finally, he spoke up. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"You said you could help me."

"I am! Um… Going to. We're just resting right now; you were hurt and shouldn't do any moving around."

With that said, he let out a sigh and stood up, looking away at the water. "I'm fine. Can we just move on? I really want to just get to the helping me part of things. I've helped you out of a stupid situation; you said you can help me out of mine, so it'd be nice if you'd just get up."

She frowned and opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it. Letting out her own sigh and shooting him a worried look, which he saw and ignored, before getting up. Truthfully, she did worry about him; it looked like the Electric type's attack had really hurt… Yet Cahal just seemed to shrug it off as if it was nothing, he was strong, yeah, but it wasn't good to push yourself too hard right? She shook her head and began to make her way to the other side of the pool of water where a larger amount of trees were, the Furret continuing to follow her silently.

She hadn't seen much of his mind, Akila had only scraped the first layer of emotions and his current thoughts when she was inside of his head, he was hard to understand with what little she knew about him and how he acted, but he could tell that he had a drive to just keep going. He wouldn't stop trying to succeed, even if she couldn't help him he would try to get stronger and do his useless workouts till his trainer returned… Other than his looks, that's probably what she admired most about him. Originally she had only looked around for a good looking fellow to call her own so Bolt would leave her alone, but now… The blunt, and to the point, macho man Normal type was growing on her already. What could she say? He was interesting…

* * *

_**Power Struggle.**_

"Over here~" Now at the other side of the pond, they began going deeper into what seemed like a mini forest. "Just follow meeeeeee…"

Akila kept in front of him, slowly weaving her way around trees and bushes, turning around and giving him a smile that was met with a straight face. The lack of emotion bothered her and made her frown, but she knew that she'd get him to crack… Eventually… "You're no fun…"

Again she was given no response, Cahal didn't say or do anything but follow her and it was a little stupid in the Espeon's opinion, he was talking earlier, why wasn't he talking now?

She sighed, stopping where she was before raising her voice. "Ren, come on out!"

A few moments of silence passed before a soft whooshing sound sounded out behind Cahal and made him jump forward and turn around sharply, ready to charge and attack whatever had come from behind him so suddenly. It was an Alakazam, tall, sharp eyes glaring down at the Normal type, and a spoon in each hand, power just radiated from the Psychic type and it made Cahal feel three different things.

Jealousy of the obvious power…

Respect for the being in front of him, which obviously had assumed was Ren.

And slight fear, Psychic types always were a bother, they had powers that he couldn't properly counter and they tended to be smarter than usual pokemon… And this one in particular was quite strong… The Furret glanced Akila, frowning as he felt another presence try and enter his mind. He knew that it was the Alakazam, and he was trying to do what the Espeon had done earlier-secretly invade into his mind and discover who the Furret was without saying a word. While Cahal was sure that the mental power would only come back stronger, he pushed it out and looked back at Ren, whom grunted slightly at being pushed out of the Normal type's mind and looked over at Akila. He spoke in an air of seriousness, but with a superior tone of voice, to express in a subtle way that he was better, and he was in charge. "What do you need Akila, and why did you bring this…" A momentarily glance was given to Cahal before Ren continued talking. "…Furret, along with you?"

It didn't seem like Cahal was going to be _not_ frowning anytime soon, the Alakazam's voice was reserved for an actual king, Arceus, Giratina, anybody that wasn't the Psychic type before him, it was just…Too high and mighty. Keen eyes looked the Psychic type over; he really looked like a normal Alakazam with no noticeable differences… Yellow, fox-like face, brown body, straight stance… He was snapped out of his thoughts by the other Psychic type who had led him to the current one, the one that's very presence didn't even allow the **thought** of dropping his guard as a possibility. "His name is Cahal, and he's why I'm here right now actually." She backed up slightly and sat down beside the Furret, flashing him a small smile before continuing. "You see, his trai-"

"My trainer decided that I'm not as useful to train as a Scyther he just caught, but I'm his first pokemon… So he put me here instead of getting rid of me, I have a month to get stronger and Akila said she would help me-but she took me to you so I assume _you'll_ be able to help me instead." Cahal kept his eyes on Ren, ignoring the harsh look the Espeon was trying to give him for cutting her off. While he normally didn't cut people off or often tried to restrain himself at least, but here was an exception. She knew what had happened by reading his mind, which the Normal type didn't like, and he'd much rather explain his predicament to someone who could actually help him instead of having her do it.

A small pause followed as the powerful Psychic type thought about what he was told, looking at the other Psychic type and then Cahal a few times before closing his eyes and nodding. "I know a few ways to help you…" The Furret, smiled slightly, making Akila instantly lose her bad mood and smile with him, but as Ren continued to talk, and Cahal noticed her smiling, his disappeared and formed into a small frown. "…however, my help does not come free and I want to know if I could trust you with what I can give." A spoon wielding hand was raised as a small blue aurora surrounded it, a similar blue glow coming from Ren's eyes slightly and making the Normal type tense up. "Allow me to see into your mind, see who you are, and then I shall help."

"No."

It was a simple answer, and so the Alakazam lowered his hand as the glow went away completely as he slowly turned around away from Cahal and Akila. "Then we're done here."

"…" Squirming, he thought about that for a moment, he really did need whatever help he could get but he didn't want anyone probing around in his mind… The Psychic type could force his way into the Furret's mind at any time he desired, but a small bit of respect for privacy was apparent. So after a moment of thinking it all over, a possible way to get help but not have his mind picked through, he let out a sigh and just asked. "Is there some other way?"

Akila chimed in, nodding her head at the exiting pokemon. "Yeah, there's gotta be another way Ren, he's not comfortable…." A pause, she shamefully looked over at Cahal and made eye contact. Her voice was much quieter now. "….with his mind being read."

While he stopped walking away, Ren didn't turn back around to look at them. His mind was advanced, some said his species could outclass a super computer, and yet he took a moment to think about it before speaking again. "There is a way to prove you're worth Furret… A Nidoking is aiming to attack and try to take over the Daycare Center; he'll be attacking from the east side-coming from the forest. Defeat him, and protect this place, and then I'll help you."

The frown remained on Cahal's face as he listened to his only other option and he almost let out a sigh, the suggestion sounded silly to him... "So, I'm asking for you to help me get stronger, and then you go over and tell me to fight something bigger than me before you help me so you can train me? This is the reason why I came to you, to get some help so I can do things like fight this Nidoking I've never heard about."

"I understand how the situation may seem when you put it like that, but understand my logic is sound in this situation. I would not ask you to do this if I was uncertain that you couldn't, while you haven't been as willing to let me see into your mind, Akila has." Ren finally turned around to look back at them, the Espeon looking away at a suddenly very interesting tree as Cahal raised a brow. The powerful Psychic smiled before continuing. "Yes, those three you fought earlier were quite weak, but it was still a feat that showed me what you are possibly capable of. I'm certain she will accompany you, so her Psychic powers would help you out if the large Poison type proves too much for you-which he shouldn't… He recently evolved with a Moon Stone and is quite young and unskilled still." He turned back around and began walking away once more. "This is a test to see if I can trust you, and this is also to see if you are able to handle the skills I will be teaching you…"

As he walked out of sight, farther into the small forest spot they were in, Cahal looked over at Akila and addressed her when he was sure that the other Psychic was gone. "You talked to him about the fight?"

Her forked tail twitched and she looked back at him with a sheepish smile. "No, kinda just showed him the entire fight instead… It helped your case though!" The Espeon's smile grew more genuine as she spoke to the Furret, glad that he was finally conversing with her. "I mean, fighting a wild Nidoking should be no problem for someone so strong…"

"…which way is east?"

"Don't need to worry about knowing that, Ren told me where the Nidoking was going to be attacking tonight! Follow me~" She turned around and began walking in the direction Cahal assumed was East, which he only sighed and followed after her. Now that he thought about it, it made sense why the Alakazam was pausing and seeming slow, he was talking and sharing memories with the Normal type's traveling companion…

"How do you know him?"

"Hm? Oh, Ren?"

"Yes, Ren."

"Well that's easy to explain, along with a few of the human workers, a couple of trained pokemon watch the borders of this place to prevent wild pokemon from getting in or trained pokemon from running off." She glanced back at Cahal as they walked, he silently followed her and waited for the Espeon to continue on with her explanation, while he was a man of few words, he was a great listener. Akila turned her head back around so she could see in front of her, and narrowly stepped out of the way of a tree. "…Ren is one of those trained pokemon. I ran into him the first day I was here."

"When was that?"

"Three days ago."

"If these pokemon are usually patrolling the borders, then how did you run into him?"

"Heh…" The two were out of forest of trees, going into another grass field area. The area was nice looking, with a few trees and small ponds dotting the entire area… Now it was easy to see the wooden fence, a small part of it, a boundary of the Daycare Center, it seemed like they were heading directly for it. "I was actually trying to run away… But he talked me out of it, anyways, when I learned about your predicament, I instantly thought of him." She nodded slightly, looking back at him with another smile. "He told me a little about his battling past, and I figured he'd at least know _something_ about a way to help you… I'm a contest pokemon personally, not much into battling but I like to watch."

They both sat down near a tree, the fence was not very far off, and Cahal assumed that this is the spot where the Nidoking would be attacking… Which made a certain question pop up into his head. "Any idea how he knew about the Poison type, where he was going to strike, and why the Psychic type didn't just deal with the possible problem the moment he learned about it?"

"Uh…. Not really."

He let out a sigh and leaned against the tree, something about the situation just didn't fit. It was all too good of a coincidence… "Doesn't matter right now, I suppose we'll find out when I ask him about it afterwards… I'm going to take a nap." Cahal closed his eyes and got in a more comfortable position, not even glancing at Akila beforehand. "Don't let anyone mess with me while I'm asleep."

The Espeon frowned at this, she wasn't particularly thrilled with him just taking a nap right here and now… "Why are you taking a nap?"

"Do you know when the Nidoking is going to attack tonight?"

"No but-"

"Exactly. We just know that it's going to be tonight, I'm going to have to keep watch all night so I should get some sleep now… Wake me up when it gets later in the day…" He shifted slightly, getting ready to fall asleep… He was actually tired, the day's events so far were a lot to take in and that Jolteon had shocked him for quite a while… "Alright..?"

The Espeon was about to protest, till she realized he was asking her to do something for him… She just smiled at him, how he looked now was adorable in her opinion… She spoke softly so as not to mess up his attempt at sleeping. "Alright Cahal…"

* * *

The drenched Pidgey fell against the wooden platform with a small thud, finally knocked out and unable to fight. Hagar jumped a little at the victory, but winced slightly from the simple action. He couldn't hide it, the Totodile was tired, his breathing was a little ragged, and altogether he seemed to slump.

"Yeah..! Take that, stupid bird…" He put on a grin though, ignoring how tired he was and sounded, and took a small step towards the Pidgey as the gym leader's red beam shot from his pokeball and returned his knocked out Flying type. "Alright… Who's next?!"

Nate was happy at how the battle had turned out, and did a small fist pump before speaking. "Nice job Hagar!"

A Sentret sat beside Nate, keen eyes having surveyed the past two battles carefully. All of them stood on a somewhat creaky wooden platform. Raised up high on sturdy wooden pillars, the gym was about four stories tall. The platform brought them up to around the second story, leaving enough room above for the flying types to comfortably dominate the battles. While the drop below was quite a fall, the ground was cushioned to where it wasn't life threatening… It'd still hurt, but nothing would break.

As his trainer and the gym leader-Falkner-exchanged a few words, Cahal paid attention to the walls, and the ceiling. Beams hung from the ceiling with the aid of surprisingly durable metal wires, and on the walls ledges just big enough for himself to climb up stuck out. While the gym was designed for Flying types to rule, it gave others a chance at victory… But it was a double edged sword in that regard, the ledges and beams allowed the previous pokemon to stall out with Roost on Hagar… "..Hagar, return!"

The Sentret looked over at the now fuming Totodile, his arms waving dramatically as possible while he shook his head 'no' repeatedly. "What?! No, I'm alright! I can take on whatever's next, no problem!"

Nate and Hagar stared into one another's eyes, raw determination filled into both… But it was a battle of will, the trainer wanted his pokemon to come back to him, the water type didn't like traveling in a pokeball, but Hagar wanted to stay out and fight till he dropped… After a few moments of intense staring, and some awkward shuffling of the feet from Cahal and Falkner, Nate let out a sigh and caved in. "Alright, you can stay in for just a lit-"A loud 'thud' sounded out into the air as the water type's knees wobbled and his eyes shut, making him smack into the wooden platform and pass out on the spot, making his trainer sweat drop. "Nevermind… Cahal, looks like you're up!"

Hagar was returned to his pokeball with a bright beam of light, and the Sentret stretched a little before walking forward, closer to the center of the base platform, and onto the battle grounds. Gym Leaders saved the best for last, or at least that's what Cahal assumed… "So, you're sending out the little Normal type? My bird pokemon eat little guys like him yah know!" Falkner's gloating was ignored by the straight faced Sentret… But they still hit home, he may have fought Pidgey's a few times, but he always had numbers on his side. Of course they had fought a few other trainers' Pidgeys, but they were overly weak and didn't count… No, this was the tough of the tough right here, and Cahal had to be ready for whatever happened next. "Now, let's finish this-go Pidgeotto!"

The pokeball was tossed and out came a pokemon much bigger than what Cahal was expecting; it was the evolved form of Pidgey! He took a deep breath and took as much time as he could before something happened to study his foe. Three times the height of its preform, the Pidgeotto sported a small rainbow plumage of feathers on its rear and had a sharp, piercing gaze and a confident smirk on its sharp beak… It, was actually a he, and he spoke after a few moments. "Oh, are we practicing or is this just a bad joke?"

The obvious jab produced a frown on Cahal's face, and it made the Pidgeotto's smirk turn into a grin. However, he had self-control, so he didn't charge in rage or return the banter with a jab of his own; he just waited for instructions from his trainer. Once the fight started, he'd kick his foe off of his pedestal… Nate's voice was sudden, and it made Cahal immediately react with impressive speed. "Cahal, use Quick Attack!"

One moment he was standing calmly, waiting for orders, the next he had slammed against the bird and had successfully surprised him so greatly that the Pidgeotto was knocked off his feet and shoved back a few feet. "Pid, use gust!"

Awkwardly, Pid tried to regain his balance and flap his wings fast enough to not only bring himself off the platform, but to cause a small gust of wind to form near his wings. Having managed to accomplish a swift recovery and both of these things, Pid shot the gust of wind straight at Cahal. It wasn't hard to see the attack coming, so the Normal type already started moving towards the side of the wall. Not really one for grace, the Sentret stumbled a little as jumped onto one of the ledges sticking out of the wall and quickly made his way up higher. The mistake Juliet and Hagar had made was allow their respective foes to gain air superiority, Cahal was not going to allow 'Pid' the chance to have the upper hand and was going to bring things down to a fair enough level as possible.

The Pidgeotto was flying at him with a Tackle attack from below, but Cahal managed to jump from one beam to another, but something terrible happened. He slipped a little and ended up hanging from one paw. _'Why the hell are these beams wet?!'_

At first it was a mystery as to why the beams were all wet and why he had slipped, but then it hit him… Hagar was shooting Water Gun after Water Gun at the ever evasive Pidgey he was up against, and everything that didn't hit had to go somewhere… This was bad news.

What was worse news was the sharp beak that hit him straight in the stomach and made him let go of the bar, Pid had taken the chance to hit Cahal with a Quick Attack… And boy, did it hurt.

The Sentret flew down from the high drop and landed on the wooden platform with a loud thud and Cahal winced.

Pid flapped his wings and flew up a little higher to one of the metal bars and landed comfortably, his talons gripping the bar easily and not slipping. "You lasted longer than most Sentrets, I'll give yah that kid."

Cahal laid motionless on the floor for a moment, before pushing himself up off the platform and looking up at Pid with an angry frown. The Pidgeotto smiled a bit, puffing it's chest out and spreading it's wings in a threatening fashion. "Well, minor correction, you've lasted longer than most Sentrets, surprised you got up from that… But it ends now."

The Flying type let out a squawk and began flapping it's wings rapidly, a spinning bought of wind forming in a mini-tornado and flying towards Cahal. Quickly, the Sentret jumped to the side and hopped back up on the wall's ledges and ended back up on the beams once more. However, Pid wasn't going to just stay still and took once more to the air. Both had keen eyes that locked, Cahal was fighting back the urge to pant however, while it was only one Quick Attack, it had hurt…

As he remained on the ledge, watching his flying foe fly around and look for a good opening to attack, an order came from the gym leader. The words were loud and crisp, and it made the Pidgeotto react right away. "Pid, use Quick Attack!" Nate's voice quickly followed Falkner's, just as loud but much more important in Cahal's mind. "Dodge it with your own Quick Attack!"

Both pokemon sped off, Pid towards the ledge, and Cahal off of it. Right away the Sentret realized that he would have to stay up in the beams and keep some sort of offensive pressure on his foe-lest he manage to actually get close to beating the Flying type and he just healed off the damage with Roost. The slow wearing down of Hagar was obvious and terrible to watch, and the Normal type would not let a repeat of that happen again. There was one thing though, the wet beams didn't make this an easy task, and even if they weren't wet, it wasn't an easy task… However, as he hopped from each beam at a quick speed that normally wouldn't be possible, Cahal told himself that he'd have to manage. It was all resting upon his shoulders right now…

Pid actually slammed into the wall, hurting himself a bit before he turned his sights on Cahal, looking much less confident and much angrier than before. "Oh, so you think that'll help yah?!" He took to the air and flew towards the Normal type beak first, going for a high speed peck. "Stupid Sentret, yer gonna be my next meal!"

Cahal gripped the bar he was on, thankful that it wasn't completely soaked in slippery water, and looked towards the incoming bird with a grimace. He had slipped a little quite a few times when he had Quick Attacked his way on the beams, and right now he couldn't flee to more beams, the bird would probably just change course and still hit him, if he didn't just slip off… "Attack it Cahal!"

He blinked slightly at the command, attack? But, how would he win that? Time seemed to slow down for the Sentret, he couldn't spare a glance towards his trainer, but he knew that voice had come from him… The Normal type wasn't being told to run away, he was being told to fight!

His brain worked quickly as the Flying type drew near, and his keen eyes studied the bird, looking for a weak point… And that's when it clicked together, Pid's wings were what made him dominate in this fight, so if they were crippled… It was an obvious thing, but it the heat of the fight, it was something the Sentret had over looked.

As he realized this, time began to progress normally, the Pidgeotto drew near, and Cahal opened his hand and extended his claws. He jumped towards the bird, determination etched on his face and surprised written on his foe's. The Normal type didn't just leap straight for the bird, he lept to the side, or, more so, for the right wing.

His foes, beak scraped his side still though, and it made him shout out in pain as the beak drew blood, but he did not falter. Sharp claws raked under the left wing completely, drawing more blood and causing his foe to let out a louder shout of pain. Pid's decent grew much steeper, and he slammed into a beam with his hurt wing, before spiraling down and slamming against the wooden platform below.

Cahal's descent wasn't too different, he had jumped up into the air, and he had to deal with his fall towards a beam below. Although he was prepared for it, that didn't mean it was any easier landing on it. It was actually a bit painful, but to make matters worse, he slipped slightly on the beam and fell off all the way towards the platform below. Luckily, he was at least prepared for it this time and he didn't have the wind knocked out of him, so he managed the drop with shaky legs.

He was panting, but he could hear his trainer cheering for him. The Sentret looked back towards the crumpled heap of Pid, before glancing back at his trainer and smiling. However, a groan from the same crumpled heap stopped the festivities short and snapped the Normal type's attention back onto his foe.

The Flying type was slowly getting back up, but it was clear from unsteady feet and slow process that just getting up was taking, that he was almost done… "Pid, use Roost!"

Cahal's eyes widened, he couldn't let that happen, all Pid had to do was concentrate and let his guard down… He was already on the floor… The Sentret grit his teeth and fought through the pain, the gash on his side was still bleeding and hurt, but he _had_ to win this right here and now, or he wouldn't win at all! He used Quick Attack, and sped off with all the speed he could muster, and slammed right into the weak Pid. The force of the impact caused the two to tumble on the edge of the wooden platform, but the Pidgeotto still had some fight in him, and went for some weak pecks against the Sentret, who went for Scratches. The two fought through their respective pain, and after a few more seconds of close fighting, they finally went off the edge… Pid couldn't fly at the moment, and neither could Cahal, so they kept up their fighting… And landed against the floor below.

Both gym leader and trainer rushed to the edge of the platform and looked down below at their pokemon, both were laying a little ways away from one another and were not moving other than chest movements from their breathing. They headed down the platform and rushed over to the pokemon as fast as they could to see if they were alright…

"Cahal!"

"Pid!"

Only one pokemon let out a small groan as an answer, Cahal.

Pid had fainted upon impact, by luck, the Sentret had been the one who was on top when they landed, and while the blow wasn't completely absorbed by the Pidgeotto, the Sentret landing on the bird was just as painful as the impact against the padded floor, and it was just too much.

Nate smiled at his little Normal type and carefully picked him up, minding to not touch the wound on his side as the boy held him in his arms. "Hey, Cahal, we did it boy! We beat the gym leader!"

The Sentret offered a weak smile, the adrenaline was gone from his body so he could now feel the pain from his numerous wounds, but deep down he was overjoyed at the accomplishment. Defeating a Pidgeotto was a tremendous task for any Sentret, and that wasn't even adding the happiness he felt for winning his trainer's first gym badge, help him take that first step in becoming a master… "You're right." The voice came from the slightly smiling gym leader as he returned his pokemon to his pokeball, his other hand reaching into his pocket as he spoke. "That was a tense battle; you've trained your Sentret well! I shouldn't have underestimated you; I guess we both have a few things to learn!"

Falkner let out a small laugh and pulled out the gym badge and handed it to a sparkly eyed Nate, he held carefully in one hand Cahal, and in the other, the fruit of their efforts and training… "And that is proof that you have successfully defeated me, the Zephyr Badge!"

The Zephyr Badge was very simple, just being a silver badge that looked like a bird's wings, just its wings, if it was flying in a straight forward fashion… But it meant so much more.

Nate's grip on it tightened, and he looked at Cahal proudly for a moment, before looking back at Falkner and speaking. "Wake up Cahal!"

The Sentret blinked in confusion for a moment, a frown spreading across his face as everything began to wave around, his trainer, the platform above, Falkner… This time the voice seemed to come from right in front of him, it was familiar, a female's voice… "Come on sleepy head, time to get up!"

* * *

The Furret's eyes snapped open to see an Espeon's smiling face just a mere few inches away. "Finally! You're a heavy sleeper, you know that?"

"Get out of my face."

Instead of frowning, her smile only increased and she drew her face closer, to the point where their noses touched a little. Her voice dropped into a suggestive tone that made Cahal realize what was going on. In his sleep he had slid down the tree slightly, likely for comfort, and was more or less, lying down at the base instead of leaning against it like before. He could feel Akila's paws on him, how close she was too him… "Why? Does it… Bother you..?"

He could feel his face redden slightly, the Normal type was getting flustered by the Espeon's antics, and he couldn't move his head back away from hers... It did bother him, he actually felt violated that she had gotten so close to him in his peaceful sleep, and while he didn't like it, he did like it. That was what bothered him the most and made him dislike it even more… He took in a deep breath, unconsciously taking in her scent, which actually smelled pretty nice, and stared her directly in the eye as he spoke. "Yes, it does bother me. I don't like how close you are, I was asleep and you're touching me right now, now you have three options. One, get off of me, two, let me shove you off, or three-"

The kiss was quick, unexpected for Cahal, and at first, he did nothing. Her advance was surprisingly quick; he didn't think she'd actually… Do something. Her flirting all day, sticking close to him, it was obvious what her intentions were, but… He thought she'd get the message when he said no…

…

But here he was, allowing her to be kissed.

After a few seconds, he snapped out of his initial shock and used pure will power to push her off of him and roll her off to his left side, while he rolled away to the right and wiped his mouth slightly. It was easy to push her off, she didn't even fight it, even now that she wasn't kissing him, her eyes were still closed and she was still dazed.

Fireworks, atomic explosions, sparks, however one would describe it, she felt it and she couldn't wipe the smile off her face… "What the hell is your problem?!"

Well, that wiped the smile off her face, but not completely. Frowning when she felt so good was a difficult task, but she got up on her feet and did her best. "What? What do you mean by that? What's _your_ problem? That was great…"

"Maybe for you, but I didn't like it!"

"Come on, don't lie to me Cahal, you must've liked it just a litt-"

"No, I didn't. I think you should back off. Now."

She blinked in confusion, anger and joy wiped from her face as confusion reigned supreme. "Wha… What do you mean?"

"I don't need you anymore, thanks for your help."

"But…"

"No buts." Cahal got up on his hind legs and looked away, arms crossed as an angry frown stayed on his face. "You showed me where to find Ren. The Nidoking won't be too much for me to handle, thanks, now go."

She opened her mouth a few times, but no words left her mouth. She shuffled her feet slightly and frowned, her eyes darting away from him and to the side. She hadn't really been expecting this kind of reaction, but she knew that she should've… Her mind was going on automatic at the time; she was just acting on impulse, throwing caution to the wind… And of course, it backfired. "Cahal… I... I'm sorry."

"I don't care."

"I didn't mean to take it that far, you're just… It was really stupid, can you please forgive me?"

"Forgiving you would be stupid."

The comment stung, but it changed her emotion from sadness, to anger, like one would flip a coin, and she took a step towards Cahal, her sharp gaze sent towards the Furret. "Excuse me? I'm trying to apologize here and you're being an ass."

"So? I don't know where those lips have been, plus, I didn't want you to kiss me."

Akila's anger only furthered and she took another step towards Cahal, her teeth starting to grit slightly. "Are you saying that I just go around kissing guys?!"

The Furret looked over at her, arms still crossed and frown still on his face. "Boy, you're a smart one! Pretty much."

Suddenly, Cahal's ears perked up and he looked over past the nearby fence, true they were in a plain-like area, but further past the fence a little ways was more trees… "Oh, you asshole! I know what I did was wrong, but that doesn't mean you have any right to-"

"Shut up!"

Another step forward, she was closer to him than the tree at this point, and she was only getting angrier. "How dare you! I-"

"I said shut up! Don't you hear it?" Her anger didn't fade away, but she took notice of his lack of sarcasm, and followed his gaze, her ears straining to hear what he did.

She didn't hear it at first, but after a moment, she heard the sound of a 'thud', and a tree falling over… It was coming from outside of the daycare, and they both knew what it could only be…

The Nidoking.

After a few seconds of listening to it getting louder and closer, Cahal looked over at Akila, sending her a dirty look, before bolting off to the fence. Meanwhile, the Espeon watched him run off with a sigh. She didn't like the arguing, she was a smart girl and yet… The insults were one sided, she let him say those things… Granted she was getting angrier by the moment, but she realized that he was right.

She shuffled her feet slightly, the Furret having reached the fence and easily going over it and running farther away to the tree line, not even looking back… She didn't know what else to do, she had no were else to go, and he could probably use the help anyways… So, she slowly started following after him with a heavy heart.

She should've just stuck to the plan and been more subtle, but she didn't want to…

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**Sorry for the wait, chapters will be up faster now. :P**


	3. Chapter 3

Cahal ran on all fours, around the trees and into the forest outside of the Daycare, his sharp keen eyes aided by the moonlight caused by the crescent moon above in the now sunless sky allowed him to see just as fine as if there was a sun. There was clouds, small or big, the sky was clear and made seeing things much easier… However, the light was not needed for the Furret to find the Nidoking. The rather large, light purple colored behemoth wasn't being discrete with his stomping about towards the Daycare and although one had to strain to hear him from a reasonable distance, he was still very loud in an otherwise quiet night.

The Normal type finally came across the Nidoking, who busily Mega Punched a tree, uprooting it out of the ground and sending it across into one of its plant brethren. He frowned at this, a simple punch easily took a tree out of the ground, he'd have to play on his other strengths against this foe… The Poison type was no Eeveelution, but being bigger than the Normal type made him at a disadvantage.

Or at least, Cahal hoped his foe would be at one.

Clearing his throat, the Furret spoke out loud enough to grab the Nidoking's attention. There was a possibility that a fight could be avoided and they could both walk away from this with no cuts and bruises, however slim the possibility was… He did not fear fighting the larger foe, he actually would've liked to challenge himself a little, but he really was in a sour mood at the moment and understood that even the best of the best could be defeated by a lowly Magikarp if their mind wasn't in the battle completely. "Hey!"

Mid step towards the Furret, the Nidoking stopped in his tracks and looked down at Cahal, who was just a few feet away near a tree. Slowly, the large pokemon lowered his foot and sharpened his gaze at the Normal type, his much louder voice booming out of his throat. "What do you want runt?"

"I'm going to ask you to stop, you're nearing the Daycare Center and it would be in the best interest of everyone if you turned around and punched trees somewhere else."

The Nidoking snorted slightly, going on his knees and bending over so he was closer to eye level with Cahal when they spoke, a smirk spread across his face now. "Really, and why should I?"

"Private property, this isn't where you live, and you'll get your ass kicked."

He leaned forward a scowl on his face. "Oh, really, well, you can relay back to your boss that he'll be the one who's ass will be kicked!"

"Question," The Furret raised his hand for a moment as he paused, studying how the Nidoking's threatening facial features changed into surprise, before lowering it and continuing talking. "why do you assume my boss is a man?"

"Well, because that's who's always in charge!" He stood up to his full height, beating his chest once and letting out a shout, before looking back down at the unimpressed Normal type with a smile. "Only makes sense that your boss is a man little scout."

"Alright, well, firstly, I don't have a boss at the moment. I'm my own boss in a sense." The Furret took a step forward, his keen gaze locked onto the larger man's eyes, his hands balling up into fists as he realized that things would take a turn for the worse soon… "Secondly, why were you punching those trees?"

There was a small bout of silence before the Nidoking started to laugh, a smile spreading wide on his face as he pulled his head back and let it all out, the hardy laughter filling the growing colder night air. It took a few moments before he finally calmed down, wiping a tear from his eye before leaning back down so his face was close to Cahal's. "That's funny, you threatening to kick my ass…."

"The question, answer it."

The smile slowly faded away from his face and was replaced by a similar scowl from before, the small Normal type trying to boss him around was funny while it lasted. "Shut up and get out of my way, I don't have time for your-"

"Humor me."

Another brief pause, only this time the Nidoking seemed to think it over in his head. On one hand, he didn't want to deal with Cahal right now, on the other, he felt a twinge of respect towards the much smaller pokemon… "Alright… I was punching them to get ready for battle, I told that stupid Alakazam I was going to beat the living Muk out of him, and we'd have a fair fight two days from our last one." His frown deepened and he looked away, punching at the ground slightly in rage. "Stupid Psychic type snuck up on me last time, I don't see what the problem with me going on the daycare is-I just wanted to get to know a Kangaskan that I saw from the tree line…"

That actually answered a few questions the Furret had for the Alakazam, but the Normal type didn't really understand why the Nidoking wasn't allowed in exactly… Although he could easily think up some reasons on the spot to make the Poison type leave. "Only pokemon owned by trainers, or enlisted to help by the Daycare Center owners, are allowed in the Daycare Center." Cahal's gaze sharped as he furrowed his brows at the Nidoking, who turned his head back so their eyes once more locked. "Wild pokemon such as yourself would just cause a lot of issues to happen, and you'd cause a ruckus. If a pokemon causes problems in the Daycare Center, then the trainer can be blamed and measures to amend the situation can be made by spending money. You're not a trainer, or have one, therefor if you cause a problem, nothing can be done to fix the issue."

"…So? The Alakazam isn't around and you're the only thing stopping me right now." He grinned, most of the Normal type's speech being ignored and disregarded as the Nidoking prepared to get up and move before the Psychic type arrived like he suspected he would. "I don't care what happens when I get in."

They stared at one another, Cahal's mind having thought up a battle plan to defeat the Nidoking the entire time they spoke to each other. Developing a battle strategy from someone's personality was surprisingly effective, unless they were a very flexible fighter, or were just plain good, he could figure out how they fought from a simple discussion. He could tell that the Nidoking was currently impatient, his blood was already rushing from his little tree punching work out which meant he was a little jumpy, he could see with his keen eyes how often his foe moved, seeing an odd reliance on the left arm and leg, meaning he was a lefty and that being on right side for the fight would be much more productive and safer. His foe was arrogant, very much so, and could therefore be taken advantage of with such tricks as playing dead… His mind processed these things, and he knew that he'd have to get the first blow in and keep a constant offensive pressure on the Nidoking… "What's your name."

"Wallace."

"Well, Wallace, Mega Punch me, come on, try it."

"Gladly!" The Nidoking pulled his fist back, and swiftly brought it down where Cahal was standing.

It didn't hit him though… He had dodged.

As the brute pulled the fist back, Cahal had took in a deep breath, letting his hands glow a white color as he already began sidestepping to the right. Before the Nidoking's fist made contact with the ground, Cahal's fist brushed against it slightly and drew all the energy that the large Poison type had drawn in from his deep reservoir of power to attack the Furret with. After that, the Normal type had jumped forward, his glowing fist drawn back for a moment before pulling forward towards the Nidoking's face.

The extra power that Me First gave to the Mega Punch was rather impressive, and it all came from Cahal and made contact directly with Wallace's face. The blow actually made the Nidoking stand up straight for a moment, before stumbling backwards and landing against a tree, making it snap against his weight and almost uproot.

The Furret's ears twitched slightly at some rustling and he looked over slightly to the side to see a sight he had been expecting, an Espeon's face. They made eye contact for a moment before both looking away, one in anger and one in shame. Both looked towards the Nidoking though, he was slowly getting back up already and rubbing his face, a scowl angrier than any other the Furret had seen spread across his face… "Alright, now I'm going to bash your skull into your chest!"

"You told Ren that before he used his Psychic powers to beat you up with his hands behind his back?"

A primal war cry was let loose out of Wallace's mouth before he charged head first, his horn on his head dripping with poison and his arms spread out incase Cahal tried to sidestep again.

There was no way to jump over the bulky arms without getting hit while also dodging the large head, however, the Furret's keen eyes seen one opening through his foe's attack, in between the legs! Once the Nidoking drew close enough, Cahal began to move to the left side and dodge Wallace's rather large head, but instead of continuing to move to the left, he moved to the right and pressed his nimble little body against the ground and his foe stomped right pass him, the large foe's arms scraping against the ground… Thinking the danger had passed, the Normal type began to get up, but seen a large, glowing silver object heading his way.

There was a moment to curl up defensively, and to realize what the object was. It was the Nidoking's tail, Wallace had planned for the nimble Furret to get behind him somehow and was actually preparing an Iron Tail for Cahal… There wasn't much that could be done at this point, the tail made direct contact with him and he flew from the force, the blow knocking the breath out of him and making his eyes widen in pain.

Akila gasped as she seen Cahal fly above her, flying under branches dangerously before… Painfully slamming against the base of a tree with a mighty thud.

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Nate twisted his generic trainer cap around on his head backwards, a Totodile and a Sentret on their respective side of him, left and right. The human boy spared a glance at both of them before stepping forward on the creaking boards that made up the wooden floor of Bellsprout Tower and speaking with one hand clenched to add onto the determined glare in his eyes. "Alright Hagar, Cahal, before we challenge this gym we've gotta train against these ghosts and Bellsprouts!"

Cahal looked over at Hagar with a small smile, his small little paws and light weight making less noise against the old floor than his two friends. "You think you can handle yourself? You've seen how difficult the Bellsprouts can be."

The water type scoffed slightly. "Doesn't matter if they're damn Grass types or not, I'll just bite the shit out of them!"

The Sentret rolled his eyes and his smile went away slightly as they continued to walk, a silence falling over them and Cahal's keen eyes scanning the area for any Bellsprouts or ghosts… It made his heart beat a little faster, the idea of there being pokemon that were ghosts was a little odd and scary but his trainer advised him to just use foresight and attack… He took a deep breath, thankfully not grabbing Hagar's attention, and calmed himself down a bit.

Right away, a cold chill went up the three of their spines, making Hagar and Nate shiver, while just making Cahal go rigid. Nate warned them that a chill would go down their spines, he had been talking to another trainer prior so he could get a few tips to fighting their way to the top where apparently a prize awaited them.

It happened quickly, Nate fell limp against the wooden floor, making both of his pokemon franticly move over to his face in worry, and then back away slightly in confusion as they found him to be breathing… But just sleeping. A female giggle pierced through the air, once more sending a chill down the two pokemon's backs, and this time making them both shiver in fear. "Hagar, we've got to watch out! It's a ghost, stay alert just like Na-"

There was another, smaller, thump noise as Hagar hit the ground just like his trainer, in a blissful sleep, leaving Cahal all alone.

The Sentret looked back and forth from his two previously awake traveling companions before looking around in the air wildly as another giggle sounded out from somewhere and to his ears. Where was it coming from? He couldn't tell, it was scaring him, he felt the urge to run away ever more so than he had ever felt. But instead of doing that, he just closed his eyes and frowned. He never ran away, he always fought, he had to, he couldn't run away like everyone else! What would happen to his trainer and Haggar? True, he only knew them for just a little over a week, but that didn't mean he didn't feel attached to them! He couldn't leave them to be eaten or whatever vile thing this ghost would do…

He took in a deep breath and opened his eyes, calming himself completely and focusing his eyes just like his trainer had taught him to. And that's when she came into focus, the source of the giggling. She was a large black floating ball, purple gas seeming to seep from her and trail away into the air, her eyes were big, and companied with her large grinning mouth, it took up almost her whole face. As she began to slowly draw near, Cahal's eyes narrowed and he lunged forward at her with his claws drawn. Apparently the Gastly wasn't expecting him to see her, much less attack, and the claws raked at her face and she let out a hiss.

But he wasn't done, he moved his paws and claws in a fast blur, his furious swipes scratching at her face eight times before he dropped down on to the floor. That was all it took to make the ghost pokemon's eyes close and for her to faint, dropping straight down onto the floor but making no noise what so ever.

The Sentret was tense, a scowl still present on his face as he looked at the apparently knocked out Gastly's body, if you could just call a floating head a body, and had to question if she really was defeated. Usually his fury swipe attack didn't make things faint that easily, but maybe the ghost was just playing dead to surprise attack him…

After around a minute of waiting, and her not moving in the slightest, also making him question if a ghost needed to breath, Cahal felt it was about time to wake up trainer. Cautiously, he began to side step over to the limp form of Nate, the Normal type's keen eyes trying to focus as much as they could onto the Gastly just in case she decided to stop pretending to be knocked out, like he suspected she would, and put him asleep too. That didn't happen though, and he made it to the human without a hitch, and he shook him slightly, raising his voice so hopefully it'd wake the boy up. Of course Nate could understand a word the pokemon would be saying, it was mainly because the Sentret wanted to say something and make noise for him to wake up. "Hey! Nate, come on, wake up! Come on!"

More time passed, and slowly, Nate's eyes began to open at the sound of Cahal's voice and shaking. The boy slowly got up off the floor and blearily looked around, seeming to just be half asleep still. "Wha… What happened?" The Normal type tugged at his trainer's pant leg and pointed at knocked out gas ball that was laying on the floor, making Nate widen his eyes and wake up. "Oh! It was a Gastly that knocked us out, you got'em Cahal? Great job boy!" The boy smiled and reached into his bag and dug around for a moment before pulling out a red and white pokeball, tossing it at the Ghost type and easily catching it with three shakes and a click. How fast Nate had decided to capture the pokemon surprised Cahal a little, but he didn't say anything… Mainly because his trainer wouldn't be able to hear what the pokemon had said, but also because he was just going to keep it to himself. "Wake up Hagar and let's go heal this little guy up!"

The Sentret nodded his head and scampered off to where the Totodile had fallen asleep, shaking him and saying similar things he had said when Nate had fallen asleep. It was all for naught though, as the Water type remained asleep despite what the Sentret had tried to do. Nate grew impatient and just recalled his starter back into his pokeball, pocketing it and motioning for Cahal to hurry up and follow him. The Normal type obliged, and hurried his way over to his trainer's side, before deciding to climb up to Nate's shoulder, the two turning and looking at one another's faces, and sharing a smile before heading back through the way they came.

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Slowly, the dark, forested world blurred back into vision for the Furret and he rolled over onto his stomach, letting out a small groan as his head swam through the ocean of pain that was his mind at the moment. Pokemon as a whole were hardy creatures, constantly shooting beams of frozen ice particles and pushing boulders bigger than some trucks, but an Iron Tail from something so big as a Nidoking combined with a brutal contact with a tree was not something easily brushed off.

Cahal forced himself up off the ground though, and although it was shaky and not very far off of said ground, the Normal type managed that much and spared a glance towards the direction where he had been hit from… The surprise of seeing a pink energy around Wallace's head and the pain that it brought him didn't really sink in completely, his eyes weren't in focus yet and he was still gasping for breath a little, not to mention the fact some trees blocked his line of sight from being perfect, all of this was irrelevant as he did manage to recognize that the large Poison/Ground type was being attacked by someone with Psychic powers… But whom?

Oh, as his gaze trailed down a little, he could make out the above a few bushes a pink forked tail… As he stared at it, he could feel himself start hearing, his sense finally catching up to his body and his breathing starting to regulate itself and while he felt sore, he was fine. "How dare you hit him you asshat!"

The Furret blinked slightly and pushed himself completely off the floor, and onto his hind legs, still looking at the tail. The voice an tail belonged to Akila of course, there was no mistake that she was fighting Wallace right now and using her typing to her advantage as well as she could, and after a few moments of staring he was able to assess the situation.

The Espeon was using her moves such as Confusion and Psybeam, and while they were Super effective, it was evident that Wallace was fighting through the pain and was trying to Stomp her or smack her with his tail like he had done with Cahal.

The Furret grit his teeth and began to get up, before letting out a sharp gasp and falling back, clutching his chest closely, he reeled in pain and did his best to not shout out in pain…

He couldn't fight, no, not like he normally did, he broke something, Arceus, and how could he had been so idiotic and not seen the attack coming?! Normally he would've just walked off from the hit with a couple of bruises, but although he had said he was fine, the attack from the jerk Bolt had done a number on him, he was surprised at how much power the prick was able to put into the attack… It didn't matter though, he slowly rolled over onto all fours and glanced back at the fight, Akila couldn't defeat the brute by herself, no, she didn't seem too gifted or skilled in the ways of combat…

But what could he do? He closed his eyes and tried to think, what moves did he know? Cut, Rock Smash, Surf, Strength, Mud Slap, Whirlpool, and Me First… What.. What could help him out here?

His eyes widened and it all clicked in his head, he could still fight and win this, pushing aside his inner quarrels about having the Espeon help him with this, he began walking on all fours, through the pain, back to the daycare center, and he raised his voice loud enough for the Psychic type to hear. "Akila! Talk to me!"

It took only a second for her voice to invade into his mind, his barriers brought down for the time being. _"OhmyArceusareyoualrightCahal?!"_

_"Yeah, I'm fine. Look, I need you to help me lure this guy back to the daycare."_

_"W-What?! We're supposed to keep him away from the daycare!"_

_"I'm too hurt to fight him normally, and you can't do it by yourself, so I need him by a water source, that pond we passed by."_

_"No, Cahal, there's one closer by."_

_"I don't know where that i-"_ Now almost to the fence, Cahal tightly closed his eyes and rolled over to his side, gritting his teeth as memories that weren't his assaulted his mind. It was a blur, but he could see through Akila's eyes, he could see the pond she was talking about, it was just about the same size and not too far from the tree, just in the opposite direction when compared to the pond the Furret had thought of…

_"Sorry Cahal, but that was the quickest way I-"_

_"Just.. Just stop,"_ He let out a grunt of pain and went back on all fours, glaring towards his goal with malice. She didn't have to do that; she could've just given him normal directions and an explanation… _"meet me there."_

It didn't matter if they were in the middle of fighting a Nidoking or not, he hadn't forgotten what she did when he woke up, and she didn't understand why he didn't like it, he didn't think anyone would…

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**A small chapter by my standards, but I felt it would be better for a cut off point right here instead of it to continue onward.**

**Please reviews this, your reviews give me power.**


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